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April 26, 2013

INS Vikramaditya poised to meet latest deadline

The INS Vikramaditya has undergone a
complex operation at Russia’s Sevmash shipyard ahead of the final stage of
trials and delivery to the Indian Navy later this year.
With 10 weeks still left until July 3,
2013, when the final sea trials are due to begin, tug boats carefully
manoeuvred the giant ship to a drainable pool. There the Vikramaditya will once
again be put on a frame. Once the water has been drained, engineers will
inspect the hull of the ship and all its outboard parts and components.
According to the head of the commissioning
team, Igor Leonov, all the procedures in the dry dock - which are compulsory
for a ship after repairs - will take two months. So far, the project remains
strictly on the latest schedule.The April 25 deadline for putting the ship in
the dock has been met, Leonov said.
Ekaterina Pilikina, spokeswoman for the
Sevmash shipyard, gave the media details of the elaborate operation. The main
complication was that there were only a few centimetres to spare between the
hull of the enormous ship and the sluice gate. To make matters worse, the team
worked in strong winds and had only an hour at the peak of the high tide to
complete their task.
The operation was observed by senior
Sevmash executives; the head of the White Sea naval base, Vladimir Vorobyev;
the captain of the Indian crew of the Vikramaditya, Suraj Berry and the head of
the Indian observation team, Kudaravalli Srinivas. Both Indian representatives
were impressed with what they saw.

Srinivas said this was the second time he
saw such an operation. The first was back in 2008, when the ship was being
taken out of the drainable pool after repairs. “Now Sevmash specialists have
once again demonstrated their professionalism,” the Indian representative said.
“They have coped very well with their task.”
The chief executive of the shipyard,
Mikhail Budnichenko, expressed confidence that all the remaining work in the
dock “will be done well and on schedule.” Sergey Novoselov, head of defence
export projects at Sevmash, explained the nature of that work: “In accordance
with the contract, we must inspect the state of the hull, the propeller-rudder
system, and the sea valves. We will also restore the paintwork below the
waterline, if necessary.”
Novoselov added that most of the problems
identified during the sea trials have already been fixed. The ongoing
refurbishment of the main boilers involves specialists of the companies which
designed and manufactured them. The refurbishment is scheduled for completion
in May. All the interim results of the project are inspected by the Indian
customer and by the Russian MoD.
Before the Vikramaditya can take to the sea
once again, the Sevmash quality assurance specialists will be asked to present
their findings on 435 separate items covering almost the entire ship, including
tens of thousands of individual parts and components. In addition, much of the
interior finish has yet to be completed.
“There are more than 2,500 compartments in the
ship,” Novoselov says. “That includes combat stations, bays, cabins, engine and
boiler rooms, power plant compartments, and a 120 metre-long hangar, which is
about the same length as a football pitch. We must paint all these
compartments, install the hardware, properly insulate all the piping and frame
elements, and present the whole thing for the customer's inspection. In
addition to the engineers setting up the main equipment, we also have painters,
joiners, fitters, insulation technicians and other specialists working on the
Vikramaditya.”

In the autumn of 2012, the Vikramaditya was
forced to return to Sevmash, where it had previously been repaired and
refitted, to replace the fire-resistant insulation of the boilers, which began
to deteriorate during trials in the Barents Sea. This and several other
problems with the hardware had forced Russia to postpone the delivery of the
Vikramaditya to the Indian Navy, which was previously scheduled for 2012.
The new delivery deadline is November 2013.
Eight boilers must be refurbished before the end of May if that deadline is to
be met. The ship is scheduled to take to the sea once again on July 3, so there
will be a month left to test all the boilers of the main power plant, including
operation at the maximum load. The next stage of the trials, which involves the
planes and helicopters based on the Vikramaditya, is scheduled for August 3.
In mid-October the ship will return to
Sevmash, where specialists will spend another month preparing it for the voyage
to India.

Trials
schedule: Every day countsSergey
Novoselov, Head of defence export projects at Sevmash

“On July 2013 the aircraft carrier will
begin sea trials in the White Sea; we will spend a month testing all the
boilers of the main power plant under various loads. The next stage of the
trials will commence on August 3 in the Barents Sea, and end on September 30.
It will involve the planes and helicopters based on the carrier; the aim is to
test the operation of the entire carrier-aircraft complex. One of the critical
parts of the trials is aircraft landings on the deck of the Vikramaditya during
night-time. These flights will begin in late August or early September, once
the midnight sun period north of the Polar Circle is over.
Then the ship is scheduled to return to
Sevmash in early October to begin preparations for the voyage to India.
November 15 is the deadline for the aircraft to be delivered to the customer
and (for the ship to) set sail for its new home in India. Incidentally, we are
planning a shorter route for that journey, via the Suez Canal rather than
around Africa. In accordance with the terms of the contract, Sevmash engineers
will perform repairs and maintenance during the initial 12-month warranty
period, and then provide their services for another 20 years once the warranty
has expired."

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